marvelanimatedfandomcom-20200214-history
Spider-Man Unlimited (TV Series)
| next = }} Spider-Man Unlimited is the loosely connected sequel series to and part of the Marvel Animated Universe. The series aired thirteen episodes starting October 2nd, 1999 and ending March 31st, 2001. It is the fifth series to focus on Spider-Man after , , , and Spider-Man. The series was created as part of a contracting issue between Marvel Entertainment and Fox Kids in order to continue airing episodes of Spider-Man. When Sony Pictures Entertainment got the film and animation rights for the character, the series faced significant development issues. While fulfilling the contractual obligations, the series went on to become one of the most criticized and poorly received Marvel animated series. It has the distinction of being the last Marvel series started in the 20th century to air. While premiered after Unlimited, delays in airing caused this series to finish airing after. Background Producer Will Meugniot explained that the show was created because both Marvel Entertainment and Fox Kids needed another Spider-Man series to fulfill contractual obligations. If Fox produced another season of a Spider-Man show they could continue airing episodes of for an undisclosed amount of time. The initial goal was to make an extremely low budget adaptation of the early issues of [http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Amazing_Spider-Man_Vol_1 The Amazing Spider-Man] and the show began production with that in mind. The idea was to have Saban Entertainment crudely animate thirteen of the first twenty-six classic comics, a technique known today as Motion Comics and similar to the old series. This would have provided the additional season as cheaply as possible.Spider-Man Not So Unlimited at Masked Mayhem However, Marvel and Sony Pictures Entertainment made a deal for a live-action film, which included their own series to use the same source as the film. As such, the show was unable to use the early comics or even the classic costume. This series would be able to use Spider-Man/Peter Parker but none of his supporting characters or stories.Comic Legends: Was Spider-Man Unlimited Originally Spider-Man 2099? at Comic Book Resources The producers toyed with [http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Spider-Man_2099_Vol_1 Spider-Man 2099] for about a week but realized that ''Batman Beyond'' had more or less appropriated that property's territory. Sony's series became .Comic Book Legends Revealed #589 at Comic Book Resources Still needing a series while Marvel had some characters that needed to be animated, Marvel gave them a list of what they wanted in the series. Elements included on Marvel's "shopping list" include Counter-Earth, the Knights of Wundagore, John Jameson, Deathlok, Venom, and others. Michael Reaves and Meugniot came up with the show's story and the Counter-Earth setting to accommodate Marvel's needs. Meugniot's initial pitch for this concept was that Spider-Man would arrive on Counter-Earth and look for a way to get home. However, he would find that Uncle Ben had not been killed on this world and the local Spider-Man would not have resisted becoming Venom. Meugniot came up with it over a "long" weekend on February 17th, 1999. He felt this helped to reinforce the Spider-Man legend. Everyone on staff liked this pitch and went into production. However, someone at Marvel freaked out upon hearing this as the producers interpreted the bad reaction to the [http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Clone_Saga Clone Saga] that there was two Peter Parkers. The series was then in production without any core story. The show could not have been a direct continuation of so that Fox could continue airing the previous show's episodes.Comic Book Legends Revealed #512 at Comic Book Resources Avi Arad banked a lot of the series. He had hoped for several miniseries based on Spider-Man and even had one planned called Spider-Man 2001. Story John Jameson, son of J. Jonah Jameson, leaves on a one-man space mission to Counter-Earth. However, both Venom and Carnage board the ship. Contact is lost with Jameson and Spider-Man is blamed by the media and the public. Eventually he is believed to be dead and Peter Parker then travels to Counter-Earth with a whole new suit. Upon arriving Peter finds the High Evolutionary, a human tired of humanity, and bestials, hybrids of humans and animals, are the dominant species. Jameson has teamed up with a revolutionary group of humans who are tired of being second class citizens. Jameson refuses to return to Earth until the High Evolutionary is overthrown. Until Jameson's cause is won Peter must try his best to blend into the society along with defeating bestial versions of Spider-Man's rogue gallery along with Venom and Carnage. Continuity While not originally meant as a sequel to , the series did contain several continuity references. Most notably, the premiere episode used the earlier show's theme song to introduce Spider-Man. The most obvious example of issues between the series is the origin of Carnage. In Spider-Man Baron Mordo and Dormammu return the Venom Symbiote and the Carnage spawn to Earth. When Eddie Brock rebonds with the Venom symbiote fellow prisoner Cletus Kasady is given the Carnage spawn. In Spider-Man Unlimited Spider-Man didn't separate the symbiote and Brock and Venom was held by S.H.I.E.L.D. along with Kasady, who was later given the Carnage symbiote. There is no mention of Mordo or Dormammu. The symbiotes' powers also seem to be radically changed. They are able to radically alter their body composition, shape, and altering their body's format. Spider-Man notes this in the first episode but there is no explanation. Also of note, in Spider-Man Mary Jane Watson, Venom, and Carnage are lost in other dimensions yet there is no mention of these events or their resolutions. The series starts off with Peter Parker and Mary Jane together, implying though not directly stating that Madame Web reunited the two, he revealed his identity, and at least began dating again. Cast : Jennifer Hale previously voiced Spider-Man's love interest Black Cat/Felica Hardy. Mr. Meugniot was originally going to be spelled Mineo. It was changed to be named after writer-producer Will Meugniot. Episodes *Spider-Man Unlimited Episodes The series lasted thirteen episodes and, like , ended on a cliffhanger. Coincidentally, similarly lasted thirteen episodes and also ended on a cliffhanger. Comics From December 1999 to April 2000, Marvel Comics published five issues of ''Spider-Man Unlimited'' based on the series, unrelated to the series of the same name from 1993. The first two issues directly translated the first three episodes of the series. The subsequent issues followed new stories that were based on Counter-Earth stories from the original comics. In the third issue, he encounters Brute, the Counter-Earth version of Reed Richards and learns that a similar experiment to the one that created the Fantastic Four changed this world's Reed, left Ben Grimm unaffected, killed Johnny Storm, and left Sue Richards in a coma. In issue four, he has Green Goblin help him leave Manhattan where he finds a place known as Harmony where humans and Bestials living together in harmony. However, it's actually a police state that he barely escapes from thanks to Gwen Stacy. In the fifth and final issue, there is a serial killer who is killing people by digging out the subdermal chip when he encounters a version of Wolverine. He and Wolverine fight the Chameleon. Peter then discovers that Wolverine is Naoko's husband and Shane's father. Cancellation The show was vastly overshadowed by the anime ''Pokémon'', which began airing at the same time and garnered far higher ratings. The series had been doing well on its own, pulling in mid-to-high 3.0 ratings, airing against Pokemon. Despite only airing three episodes, the series was put on a two-month hiatus following , where one month later it was announced that the series was being cancelled. Rick Ungar, who had then recently been named president of the newly formed Marvel Character Group making him responsible for Marvel's television animation projects, stated that Fox needed to devote more time to shows that could compete with Pokemon. Fox Kids had been in fourth place the previous year behind Kids' WB, Nickelodeon, and ABC but had managed to move back up to third. Fox kept shuffling the shows around the times, putting in this show's slot, with the programming changing from week to week with only ''Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century'', ''Digimon'', and ''Beast Machines: Transformers'' maintaining their timelots. Without a steady timeslot, audiences had a difficult time watching it week-to-week.Avengers In, Spider-Man Out--For Good? at Archive.org Between Marvel's bankruptcy problems, the comparatively low ratings, and the fact that it fulfilled the thirteen-episode contract need the series was not picked up for further episodes. Although the first season ended on a cliffhanger and several scripts were written for a second, no more came from the series. Reception Fans of and of the Spider-Man comics in general were disappointed. They felt that the show tried to be closer to the comic books but became bogged down with being on an alien planet. On a positive note, many noted that the visuals were very appealing. During the major comic book event ''Spider-Verse'', an alternate version of this series was included. In one issue, the main villain Morlun goes to a world similar to this series' Counter-Earth and snaps the neck of an alternate version of Spider-Man wearing the same costume seen here. However, it is stated that it is not the world seen in this show. The storyarc did crossover with , , and . The story also had a tie-in video game titled ''Spider-Man Unlimited'' though it refers to the game being an unlimited running game. Rotten Tomatoes ranked the series among its top one-hundred superhero series with this series at seventy-three above at one-hundred at eighty-nine, at eighty-six, at eighty-three and below at sixty-nine, at sixty-eight, at sixty-six, at sixty-four, at fifty-eight, at fifty-five, at fifty-one, at forty-eight, at forty-six, at forty, at nineteen, and at five.100 Best Superhero TV Shows of All Time at Rotten Tomatoes Home Video The series never received a full home video release on VHS, DVD, or Blu-ray due to various rights issues and low demand. It will be included as part of The Walt Disney Company's streaming service Disney+.Here’s The Complete List of Movies & TV Shows Coming to Disney+ on Launch Day at /Film References External Links *Original Pitch *Marvel Animation Age *Internet Movie Database *TV.com *Wikipedia *Marvel Database Category:Spider-Man Unlimited Category:Marvel Animated Universe Category:Marvel Animated Series